Series 5 sees Daenerys Targaryen continue to grow in power which is not going unnoticed by those in Westeros. Elsewhere, Jon Snow faces some major changes on the wall and Aryr Stark continues on her quest for revenge.

Given the issues of pace and focus that bedevil Martin's later novels, Benioff and Weiss's impulse to both compress and juice up the material makes eminent sense. The result is a season of Game of Thrones that promises to be bigger than ever.

Many shows are starting to run out of gas by Season 5. Game of Thrones, partly because it's as cold-blooded as its characters in treating personnel turnover as the natural order, seems to have little trouble keeping its pedal to the metal.